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THE 



OLIVE BRANCH; 



OR, 



THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 



CHARLES MINER. 



PHILADELPHIA. 

1856. 



THE 



OLIVE BRANCH 



OK, 



THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY 



EY 



CHARLES JOINER. 



PHILADELPHIA. 
1856. 






Piinted by T K & P G Collins 






Jtbicafai, 



WITH PROFOCN'D VENERATION AND RESPECT, TO 

ROGER B. TANEY, 

CHIEF-JUSTICE OF THE UXITED STATES, 
AND 

TO HIS ASSOCIATE JUSTICES, 

ir 
THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



The Introductory Address delivered at "West Chester, 
Pennsylvania, at a celebration of the Declaration of 
Independence, July 4, 1821, immediately succeeding 
the excitement growing out of the admission of Mis- 
souri, is republished, to show the sentiments of the 
author then, which he has ever sincerely cherished, 
without variableness or shadow of turning, and as 
giving him some claim to a dispassionate hearing at 
the West and South on the delicate and exciting 
question of slavery. 

He may be permitted to add, with pride, that the 
late venerated Chief-Justice Marshall caused the pub- 
lication of the Address in a Richmond paper, with a 
commendatory introduction ; and, among other nume- 
rous testimonials of approval, he received a flattering 
notice from the then President of Princeton College, 
to whom he was personally a stranger. 



ADDRESS. 



[After the seventh toast, the President called on Mr. Miner 
for a volunteer, who prefaced the sentiment by the following 
observations, which, by request, he has furnished for publi- 
cation.] 

Mr. President: — 

I shall obey your call with pleasure ; and, if it 
will not too much interrupt the flow of hilarity 
which prevails, I will offer you some reasons for 
the sentiment which I give. 

It cannot have escaped you, that, in the dis- 
cussions growing out of the Missouri controversy, 
a dissolution of the Union has been adverted to 
by zealous partisans on both sides of the ques- 
tion. 



8 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 

I confess to you, sir, that I cannot hear this 
subject spoken of without feelings of horror and 
dismay. 

It sounds in my ear like a proposition of fratri- 
cide. Such a measure, it is manifest, could not be 
effected without the most desolating civil wars; 
and, should it be accomplished, would be followed 
by eternal contests between the neighboring tribes, 
(for they would no longer deserve the name of 
states or nations.) Standing armies, oppressive 
taxes, the violation of public rights and private 
security, and, finally, the subjugation of the whole 
by some military adventurer, would be the inevi- 
table result. 

I tremble to look down this dark abyss of misery 
and ruin. Despotism throughout the earth would 
exult at the issue, while wise and patriotic men, 
to the latest generations, would hold our name in 
pity and in scorn. 

I do not make these remarks because I appre- 
hend that on any side there is a disposition de- 
liberately to bring about a separation. The man 
who should propose it would be driven by public 
indignation from society. 



THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 9 

But rash and ambitious men, in moments of 
great excitement, inflamed by passion and reck- 
less of consequences, may hereafter attempt the 
measure if the minds of the people are not ef- 
fectually guarded against it. 

The union of the States should be considered 
like freedom of conscience or the right of self- 
defence, — not for a moment to be brought in 
question. 

The law of our union should be impressed 
upon our children as of the most sacred and 
paramount obligation. Habit is more powerful 
than law. Sentiment is more operative than 
reason. 

I think, therefore, that law and reason should 
be fortified by habit and sentiment; and the doc- 
trine should be inculcated in our schools, from 
the press, and in our public assemblies, so that 
successive generations may grow up with the im- 
pression indelibly fixed in their minds that the 
union of the States is the fundamental law on 
which our freedom is based, and the only sure 
foundation of our prosperity and glory. 

I shall not attempt formally to reason this 



10 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 

matter, but I beg leave to repeat to you an old 
story : — 

An Indian sachem, finding his life drawing to 
a close, called his children around him, and, 
holding out a bundle of rods bound firmly 
together, told his sons to break them. Each 
tried in his turn, but was unable. He then 
separated them, and broke each rod himself with 
ease. "Thus," said he, "will it be with you, my 
children. In union you will find safety; divided, 
your enemies w T ill easily overpower you. These 
rods, firmly united, the efforts of strong men 
could not break; but, when separated, a feeble 
old man could destroy them." 

After the late collision, in which w r e differed 
so widely and so warmly from our Southern 
friends, it may possibly be thought that some- 
thing of prejudice against them may remain in 
our breasts. 

Throughout Pennsylvania, I am bold to say 
that, whatever difference of opinion may exist on 
some subjects, there is no other general sentiment 
prevailing toward them than that of entire good 
will. 



THE EVIL AND THE EEMEDY. 11 

We are not only bound to the South by cords 
of interest, bat by the stronger ties of affection. 
We not only find a satisfaction in the productive- 
ness of her rice, sugar, cotton, and tobacco plan- 
tations, which contribute so largely to the national 
resources, but we participate in the pride of her 
chivalric character and exult in the triumphs of 
her eloquence and her arms. Her history and 
the fame of her heroes are the objects of our 
respect and veneration. The Southern are a high- 
spirited, mercurial people, distinguished by quick- 
ness of perception, rapidity of thought, and celerity 
of movement. Nice in their notions of honor, jeal- 
ous of their rights, quick as lightning they flash 
when in collision; but, like the flint, they show a 
hasty spark, and straight are cold again. Withal 
they are frank, generous, brave, and hospitable, 
and, in truth, combine within themselves all the 
elements of a noble character. 

Their fathers and our fathers fought many a 
well-contested field, side by side, for independence. 
Our Wayne and the gallant soldiers of the Penn- 
sylvania line gathered laurels, which shall be ever 
green, in the same bloody conflicts which im- 



12 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 

mortalizecl Monroe, Lee, Morgan, Pickens, Camp- 
bell, Pinckney, Sumpter, and Marion. 

And what Pennsylvania!! — nay, what Ameri- 
can — is not proud to claim Laurens as his country- 
man? What bosom so cold as not to throb with 
rapture when the historian portrays the eloquence 
of Henry and of Randolph ? American litera- 
ture exhibits, with conscious pride, the works 
of Ramsey, Marshall, and of Wirt. And while 
older nations boast of their heroes and states- 
men, we may point to a phalanx in Virginia, 
with Washington at their head, and boldly chal- 
lenge a competition. 

Southern statesmen, soldiers, and orators crowd 
so fast on the recollection that it is impossible to 
name them; but their fame is our common inherit- 
ance. And while the memorials of our nation 
shall endure, it will not be forgotten that at York- 
town, in Virginia, Cornwallis surrendered a nume- 
rous and well-appointed army to Washington and 
his comrades in arms; or that at New-Orleans 
Pakenham and his vaunted veterans were signally 
overthrown by Jackson and his gallant followers, 
our brethren of the West and South. 



THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 13 

As the result of these views, I beg leave to give 
you 

" The United States and the citizens of the South. May our 
Union be everlasting as our hills, and may mutual good-will, 
freedom, and prosperity, like our rivers, flow through the land 
in perpetual streams." 

Deeply impressed with the magnitude of the 
subject, I approach the practical point aimed at 
(in these letters) with all the solemnity of feeling 
its importance is calculated to inspire. 

It has for many years occupied my most anxious 
thoughts, — sometimes the prospect gilded by hope, 
and not unfrequently overcast by clouds darkening 
to the hue of despair. 

The voice of history audibly on every page tells 
us of and repeats to us the dire calamities of civil 
war; the inveterateness of hatred between those 
who, once friends, had become enemies; the excita- 
bility of the human temperament to deeds of retali- 
ation and vengeance for real or imagined wrongs. 

I am among those who apprehend, with inex- 
pressible dread, that the dismemberment of this 
Union would give a death-blow to the last hope of 



14 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 

man's maintaining a government formed on the basis 
of justice, liberty, and equality, — where citizens of 
all religious persuasions, sects, or denominations, 
and of every shade of political opinion and creed, 
obedient to the laws, might enjoy the utmost free- 
dom consistent with the freedom of their fellows, 
each family sitting under its own vine and fig- 
tree, with none to molest or make them afraid. 

Treating of the vexed question of slavery, it is 
but just to myself, and respectful to the public, 
that I should declare what have been and are my 
sentiments upon the subject. 

I hold that slavery is recognised by the Consti- 
tution. That there are certain concessions made 
to it in that instrument inalienably obligatory, ex- 
cept with the consent of the States where it exists. 
That slavery can have a being only by local law, 
and within the limits of the States where it is esta- 
blished; but, being at variance with natural law, 
that it cannot be established de novo anywhere, 
and can have no existence, rightfully, where it does 
not now prevail. That within those States neither 
the General Government, nor the other State Go- 
vernments, nor individuals, have any right to inter- 



THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 15 

fere any more than with any other of their strictly 
municipal or social regulations. That, at the 
time of framing the Constitution, slavery was 
universally regarded as an evil present existing, 
to be kept within well-understood bounds. That, 
within the territories and all places under the 
jurisdiction of the general government, absolute 
power exists over it in Congress, accompanied 
with a duty, springing from the principles of 
eternal and unchangeable justice and the de- 
mands of sound policy, to abolish it and to prevent 
its extension. That the three-fifths rule, admit- 
ting the representation for slaves, is in the bond ; 
and, however onerous now regarded, not to be dis- 
turbed, as I would not shatter a china vase because 
a speck on the enamel defaced its beauty. That 
the rendition of "persons held to service" escaping, 
being in the bond, ought to be fulfilled, but in a 
manner not to shock the moral sensibilities of the 
community. 

I am free to confess that the experiment of the 
Fugitive Slave Law, — to which, in a moment of 
alarm, (and I regret it,) I gave my assent, — the 
frequent inhuman manner of its enforcement, 



16 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 

wringing the heart with anguish, — the scenes in 
Boston and elsewhere, — the new doctrines since 
avowed, springing out of the concession, — fill my 
mind with apprehension. The repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise, the irritating and most ex- 
ceptionable conduct of certain members of Con- 
gress while on its passage, — a repeal which any 
person predicting five years before would have 
subjected him to be denounced as an idiot, an in- 
cendiary, or a madman, — the unexampled outrages 
in Kansas, and the growing excitements in all 
parts of the Union, (sounding like the moan of 
the storm-demon along the base of the mountains,) 
— lead me to believe that a crisis has arrived when 
the slave-question must be met — met on both sides 
by the sober-minded, the wise, the prudent, the 
true conservative friends of the Constitution, the 
friends of this glorious Union, and of the great 
principles of religious and civil liberty contended 
for by our fathers. 

Look at Mexico; run your eye over all South 
America; turn to Africa; scan Asia; examine 
Europe : is there aught in the whole vast scope of 
vision to lead one sensible and good man to desire 



THE EVIL AXD THE REMEDY. 17 

an exchange, but rather to deprecate, curb, and 
restrain every rash footstep that would lead to 
revolution, anarchy, and civil war? In the midst 
of a stormy ocean, shall we break the ship in 
pieces, each of the crew depending upon a chance 
plank for safety when the sea is covered with 
wrecks ? 

One step farther at Boston, and a platoon of 
regular soldiers might have poured a volley of 
death into the crowded street; and who so pre- 
scient as to aver that civil war, in all its horrors, 
may not have ensued? An obscure smith, avenging 
the insult of a tax-gatherer to his daughter, set all 
England in a blaze. The "king, who was deter- 
mined to try it," and his prime minister, North, 
had, or thought they had, law on their side, and 
were persuaded, we are to suppose, they were right. 
And so were those persuaded who had direction of 
the military when Burns was arrested. But the 
Adamses, Hancock, Warren, and others, differed 
from the king; and thousands of patriots, pure as 
they, with equally honest convictions, believe the 
recent measures in train equally despotic in their 
present aspect, and deem them not less fraught 



18 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 

with danger to freedom and all that can make life 
desirable. 

When Stringfellow attempted to throttle and 
chastise Governor Reeder, if equally-excited friends 
had rushed in to his rescue, who so wise in fore- 
sight as to aver that civil war would not then 
have ensued ? 

It seems to me we are marching over a maga- 
zine of powder, above which is erected a temple 
surpassing in beauty and exceeding in splendor 
that famed one of Ephesus, and which, I should 
fondly hope, in all our land there is no Eratos- 
tratus base enough willingly to set fire to, yet 
that is liable to be exploded by the passionate or 
thoughtless rashness of excited and inconsiderate 
partisans on either side. The recent event at 
South Carolina College, in Columbia, is a melan- 
choly exemplification of the bewildering power of 
excited passion in uncorrupted youth, learned, 
polished in manners, and, when free from excite- 
ment, amiable to endearment, moving in the ele- 
vated walks of refined society. 

The opinion formerly entertained, that slavery 
was an element of weakness, I am aware is dis- 



THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 19 

carded, and that it is now regarded as a power of 
great potency, capable of almost instant aggre- 
gation and discipline, by means of which the North 
may be governed at will. 

A gentleman holding slaves, of high worth and 
habitually amiable deportment, said, in the pre- 
sence of the writer, in a free discussion of the 
matter, in reply to a remark by a Northern man 
"that slaves rendered the South comparatively 
weak," " How mistaken ! So far otherwise," said 
he, not vauntingly, but as expressing his clear con- 
victions, "you lie at our mercy. These fellows, 
taught to seize a mad horse by the head, know 
nothing but obedience. We could place an army 
in the field before you could begin the slow process 
of rallying your militia." From the Rev. Mr. 
Breckenridge's letter it seems manifest he enter- 
tains the same opinion. It may be so. I hope the 
experiment may never be tried. 

With the terror excited by the Southampton at- 
tempt at insurrection; with the scenes of St. Do- 
mingo fresh in recollection, few who reflect and 
are cautious in expressing their opinions, I think, 
will say "there is no domestic danger." 



20 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 

For my single self, I confess the principal cause 
of fear is in an 

INVADING FOREIGN ENEMY. 

An army of 150,000 men, 20,000 of them 
black regiments, trained and disciplined in the 
West Indies, all arrayed with revolt-inciting "ban- 
ners," would be indeed "terrible." Those who 
look at the atrocities of the French revolution 
while Robespierre and Danton ruled, — or the bar- 
barities of the French in the war of 1756, when the 
savages, armed with tomahawk and scalping-knife 
by that refined nation, were set ferociously on our 
defenceless frontiers, — or the blood-freezing enormi- 
ties of the civilized Briton, playing the same death- 
march to the slaughter of unresisting innocence, 
with variations of increased cruelty, so late as the 
war of the Revolution, — can hardly affect to doubt 
that if interest, or passion, or policy, instigated the 
measure, they, either one or both combined, would 
renew the like sanguinary and cruel conflicts with 
the aid of their African allies. 

All this appears too horrible to be thought of. 
To speak of it seems almost like treason. "Are 



THE EVIL AXD THE REMEDY. 21 

they dogs, that they should do this thing?" And 
yet what are they now doing? Where are the 
legions of France and England at this hour, and 
what, in the name of heaven and humanity, are they 
about? How many lives have they already sacri- 
ficed of their own and the Russians, on the cold, 
lifeless pretence of policy, to preserve the balance 
of power, forsooth, which oceans of blood have 
never yet been able to establish ! 

If it be a possible — nay, more, a probable — 
danger, would it not be folly allied to weakness 
not to take early, instant, effective measures to 
disarm it? 

A remark presses to my pen : — It is sometimes 
asked, "What has the North to do with slavery?" 
We answer, " It has to do with the already great 
and growing slave representation and its rapidly 
approaching overshadowing influence in the Senate 
and the General Government." The militia of 
the North, every man of them, are constitutionally 
bound to march at the call of the President to 
Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, or elsewhere, to put 
down an insurrection of slaves. 

Nor is the danger to be disregarded arising from 



22 THE OLIVE BRANCHJ OR, 

the increasing mulatto, quadroon, and mustee popu- 
lation accumulating in the South, — many of them 
free, and a portion, not inconsiderable, partially 
educated, while some are even versed in classical 
literature and proficients in scientific attainments. 
On all these, however fair in complexion, polished 
in manners, or refined in taste, the ban of social 
outlawry is irrevocably passed. Their depression 
in the social scale, instead of humbling the mind 
to passive acquiescence in their doomed position, 
must kindle into intensest activity the spirit of 
ambition, while bitterest hatred, smothered under 
assumed respect, gathers daily strength in the 
proud breast which pants for an opportunity to 
revenge. With astonishing inconsistency, as it 
appears to me, and lack of foresight, the South is 
breeding and bringing up precisely the sort of men 
to take the initiative in an attempt at revolution 
and to lead in the field of battle, while super- 
abundant materials of strong arms and willine 
hearts, it is manifest to a distant observer, lie 
amply before and all around them. Is it not 
natural to suppose "I bide my time" is the whisper 
of multitudes of those ostracized — the neither white 



THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 23 

nor black, neither citizens nor slaves? If not, all 
the teachings of history, of reason and experience, 
are false. 

The powder is scattered far and wide — the 
seeds of threatening destruction. Accident, the 
self-igniting slow-match, time and chance, all, un- 
foreseen, may light the torch. Then will be the 
call for a leader, — how important a material to 
success in any enterprise is manifest from the 
records of earliest time. It has grown into an 
apothegm that "deer led by a lion are more to be 
dreaded than lions led by a deer." What were 
the armies of Macedon without Alexander ? of the 
Eastern Empire without Belisarius? of France 
without Napoleon? of England, in the Peninsular 
campaign, without Wellington? 

And what statesman is there, North or South, 
the calibre of whose mind could carry his thoughts 
beyond the engrossing questions that occupy the 
buzzing insect-politicians that feed and fatten on 
the public offal, — whether John Doe or Richard Roe 
should occupy the White House or be sent minister 
to England, — that is not fully aware of the well- 
disciplined companies and regiments of blacks that 



24 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 

parade, march, and countermarch, in the West 
India Islands and elsewhere, prepared and des- 
tined, in case of a desperate struggle and vengeful 
war, to find employment in checking the rising 
glories and humbling the proud boast of this 
envied, dreaded, and therefore hated, republic? 

Regarding the danger certain, more or less 
remote, so also do I consider a preventive or 
remedy imperiously demanded by the "common 
welfare." 

Who shall propose it? 

Shall each one, waiting for another, sit down 
in silence and despair until the number of slaves 
has swelled to the portentous amount of ten 
millions? How long, even with the present 
decennial ratio of increase, before there might 
be counted a million able to bear arms? 

The thought is appalling! 

There is another source of danger, too probable 
and important to be omitted. I refer to that 
which might arise from famine. The extreme 
South, depending mainly on their cotton and 
sugar crops, seems specially exposed to the danger 
of want of food for their laborers. A frost, (the 



THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 25 

extreme severity of the passing winter, bearing 
its icy terrors far into Southern plains hitherto 
deemed beyond the reach of danger, cannot fail, 
methinks, to awaken inquietude in many a manly 
breast little accustomed to fear,) the rot, the army- 
worm, in multitudes, like the swarming grasshop- 
pers that are spreading desolation all over Oregon 
and Utah, would assuredly be attended with distress 
to all, and possibly entail extreme suffering upon 
the more numerous dependent class, who have, it is 
supposed, neither the means nor the prospective 
care to provide for the supposed contingency. 
The suffering in Ireland from the loss of the po- 
tato-crop, — the continued distress in Madeira from 
the grape-failure, — the entire loss of the wheat- 
crop in extensive districts in New York and some 
Western States, which may become general, arising 
from the sudden advent of a mere tiny yellow fly, 
— all tend to show by what an " attenuated thread" 
we hold the means of life. "Hunger,'' says the 
old proverb, "will break through stone walls;" 
while every possible effort would be made by 
their masters, both from humanity and interest, 
to obtain relief for laborers. Yet, suffering them- 



26 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 

selves, their accustomed income cut off, it seems 
evident the evil might become so intense — as in 
European cities in time of scarcity — as to break 
down all the mounds of authority; and, the dykes 
once broken, who could stay the inundation? 

Is the danger absolutely fanciful, indicated in 
the Virginia debates, that a portion of this Union 
may, by an unwise policy and an untoward series 
of events, become a great negrodom empire, — a 
sable despotism like Hayti, — the terror of all 
around them? 

My proposition, submitted with all due defer- 
ence, is this: — 

TJiat one hundred millions of dollars be appro- 
priated for the gradual but certain extinguishment 
of slavery in the seven States named, to wit: — 

Delaware, Maryland, 

Virginia, Kentucky, 

Tennessee, Missouri, 
Arkansas. 

The public revenue is, happily, abundant. The 
fact has been again and again stated — and I do not 
learn that any man affects to doubt it — that our 



THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 27 

government authorized the offer of one hundred 
and fifty millions of dollars to purchase Cuba. 

Now, I assume that, instead of augmenting the 
number of slaves and slave States, it would be wiser 
to lessen both, if it can be fairly accomplished 
with the consent of those principally interested. 

I cast about for some ground of division that 
should be satisfactory, and come to the conclusion 
that as, in constituting Congress, (Senate and 
House,) a federal and popular combined basis had 
worked well, I would introduce it here. Multiply 
the whole number of slaves in those States by 
sixty,— to wit: 1,150,008 x GO = 69,003,480, which, 
divided by the number in each State, would give 
each, on the popular basis, as follows: — 

Delaware 132,000 

Maryland 5,422,000 

Virginia 28,351,080 

Kentucky 12,658,860 

Tennessee 18,367,540 

Missouri 5,245,320 

Arkansas 2,826,00 

69,003,480 

Leaving a balance of 30,996,520 

100,000,000 



28 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 

Now the federal number, as must be obvious, is 
found by dividing that balance by seven : — 

7)30,996,520(4,428,074. 

Hence, Delaware would receive 132,000 

4,428,074 

4,560,074 

Maryland 5,422,080 

4,428,074 

9,850,154 

Virginia 28,351,680 

4,428,074 

32,779,754 

Kentucky 12,658,860 

4,428,074 

17,086,934 

Tennessee 14,367,540 

4,428,074 

18,795,614 

Missouri 5,245,320 

4,428,074 

9,673.394 

Arkansas 2,826,000 

4,428,074 

7,254,074 

100,000,000 

For this sum it is proposed a stock be issued by 
the General Government of fifty millions of dol- 



THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 29 

lars, bearing an interest of five per cent., pay- 
able semi-annually, irredeemable for twenty years. 
A further stock of fifty millions, bearing an interest 
for the first five years of two per cent., the second 
five years of three per cent., the third five years 
of four per cent., and thereafter five per cent., 
redeemable at pleasure. 

To be delivered respectively to the States, or 
either of them which shall pass laws, in the nature 
of irrevocable contracts with the Federal Govern- 
ment, that no person born on or after the fourth of 
July, 1876, shall be a slave; and that after that 
day slavery shall cease to exist within the limits 
of the same, respectively. 

And what would be the consequence? The 
stock so appropriated would be felt throughout 
this whole community of States only in its benefi- 
cence, in the confidence and harmony it would 
create and restore. It would bless those that 
give and those that take. In the States re- 
ceiving it there would be no sudden disruption 
of existing ties. Business would flow on in its 
accustomed channels, only stimulated into greater 
healthful activity by abundant means. As the 



30 THE OLIYE BRANCH; OR, 

Middle and Eastern States rose rapidly into opu- 
lence from the increased activity given to trade 
and industry by the capital distributed among 
them of Federal stock, under the funding system. 

Twenty years, (the time allotted by the Consti- 
tution to terminate the slave-trade,) though it may 
seem long in a man's life, is yet a brief period in 
that of a nation. 

The certainty that slavery would cease to exist 
in these States would lead thousands and tens of 
thousands of wholesome, moral, intelligent emi- 
grants to hasten thither to a more southern aspect 
and genial clime, — 

" Where summer first unfolds her robes, 
And where she longest tarries/' 

hastening to partake of the productive soil, the 
lovely climate, long the object of envy and desire, 
but which mothers were reluctant to remove to 
when their children must be brought up amid the 
degraded African race. 

Lands — cultivated farms, or wild — rising in value 
to an amount enriching each State fourfold more 
than the stock received. 



THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 31 

Railroads, schools, colleges, manufactories, mills, 
science, arts, education, every thing desirable to 
improve and adorn life, would receive an imme- 
diate and healthful impetus, quickened by the 
inspiring influence of assured freedom. 

Let it be borne in mind that this plan of com- 
promise is founded on the principle suggested in 
Mr. King's proposition in the Senate: — 

"The interposition of the Federal Government, 
and the application of public lands to accomplish 
the end; thus substituting stock in money instead 
of land." Approved by the distinguished Vir- 
ginian, Mr. Brodnax. 

And, in regard to the post nati, justified by that 
eminent statesman, Mr. Rives. And that "some- 
thing should he </<>ne" concurred in by the "whole 
State of Virginia. Again and again it is pressed 
on every intelligent citizen, who desires to com- 
prehend the actual state of the case, to read the 
proceedings and debates in the Virginia Assembly 
immediately subsecpient to the Southampton in- 
surrection. 

Virginia! Virginia! charming Virginia! It 



32 THE OLIVE branch; or, 

would require the imagination of a poet to paint 
the instant and progressive advance which would 
render perfect the wishes and hopes of thy noble 
sons, whose fathers have gone down to the grave 
darkling almost in despair, knowing the evil, but 
seeing no remedy. Arise! Like Paul, shake the 
benumbing viper from your hand ! You have but to 
ivill it, and you are free, prosperous, and soon again 
to be foremost in the rank of States. 

Accompanying this great and healing measure, 
equally desirable to us and more important than 
the union of England and Scotland to them, 
should be the immediate repeal of the Fugitive 
Slave Law, so painfully, so dangerously irritating. 
But, as the Federal Government is bound to see 
that the Constitutional injunction be carried into 
effect, an arrangement should be made that a 
person escaping should be reclaimed as fugitives 
from justice now are, — by the application of the 
Governor of the State whence he fled to that of 
the State that harbors him; and, on failure of 
being delivered up, the General Government should 
pay to the claimant one-half, or something more, 



THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 33 

of his assessed value, the amount to be charged 
to the State so failing; the matter to be adjusted 
in the final settlement of accounts between 
them. 

Slavery confined to those States whose pro- 
ductions of cotton, rice, and sugar are supposed 
to require their labor, all danger to them from 
within or without would cease, and the utmost 
degree of prosperity they are capable of would 
ensue. 

Receiving from the seven States who were in 
a gradual train of winding up their concern with 
them, the cotton and sugar plantations would be 
supplied on moderate terms, and there could be no 
motive hence to urge the reopening of the slave- 
trade in the annexation of Cuba. 

The jarring notes of discord throughout the land 
would cease, so desirable everywhere, not least 
desirable among our Christian friends. 

There are fifteen million persons in the free 
States. The sum to be paid, even if assessed on 
them, would not come to seven dollars each, — not 
thirty-five cents a year. The revenue from im- 



34 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 

ported silks alone would pay the interest and 
redeem the stock within the twenty years. 

An important consideration remains to be noted. 
The power and application of steam have brought 
Africa to our doors. 

There should forthwith, from two to four — more 
if necessary — large steamers be placed by Govern- 
ment at the disposal of the Colonization Society; 
five per cent., more or less, should be reserved, to 
be expended by the Colonization Society under the 
supervision of the President; the healthful high- 
lands of Africa should be explored and purchased, 
the colored race be aided home, encouraged, de- 
fended; while their commerce would, like the full 
breasts of the Roman daughter, return to our 
merchants a revenue ample to repay every ex- 
pense incurred. Civilization, knowledge, Chris- 
tianity, would go in their train; and that fine 
country, so susceptible of improvement, so long a 
"Paradise lost," would, under Providence, by our 
and their instrumentality, become a "Paradise 
regained." 

Oh, what a glorious theme ! 



THE EVIL AND THE EEMEDY. 35 

Oh, from the sacred altar, " a coal like that which 
touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire," to kindle 
the eloquence of our clergy everywhere, and of 
every denomination, to plead for it. 

All which is respectfully submitted by 

Charles Miner. 

WlLKES-BAitRf:, Pa., March 17, 1856. 



THE END. 



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